Kumar Mangalam Birla has initiated several top-level changes in the AV Birla Group.
Debu Bhattacharya, currently managing director of Indo Gulf Fertilisers, will take over as the new managing director of Hindalco in October when the current MD Askaran Agarwala steps down. Agarwala will, however, continue to be on the board of Hindalco in a non-executive capacity.
To replace Bhattacharya at Indo Gulf, Birla is inducting an outsider in Rakesh Jain, now the president and CEO at GE Plastics, responsible for India and South Asia. Jain will join the group in October.
The two changes will also trigger a series of changes in the group's top management structure. Bhattacharya will step down as the managing director of Birla Management Corporation, the central think-tank of the group, as well, which will have to decide on a new head.
Apart from Hindalco, Bhattacharya is also responsible for the Rs 1,400-crore (Rs 14 billion) Indian Aluminium Co, a 96 per cent subsidiary of Hindalco, and Utkal Alumina, a Rs 4,000-crore (Rs 40 billion) greenfield alumina project in Orissa which has been hanging fire for the last eight years.
As director on the BMC board, Bhattacharya was also responsible for the group's insulator business, currently carried out through a joint venture with NGK Insulators of Japan, after it was spun off from Indian Rayon.
He will also give up this responsibility and his successor will be subsequently decided.
The BMC has also seen another change with BN Puranmalka, an old Birla hand, stepping down. Puranmalka, a former Indo Gulf managing director, was last responsible for the group's energy business that has now been entrusted with Bharat Singh, another BMC director.